The present invention relates to a novel bath preparation. More particularly, the present invention relates to a bath preparation that contains as an effective ingredient a whey concentrate of high mineral content and which has good health promoting and beautifying effects.
With the growing interest in health and beauty amongst the public at large, a variety of bath preparations specifically oriented to satisfying these concerns have been developed.
Conventional bath preparations contain a variety of active ingredients depending upon the specific objective of their use, including: inorganic salts such as sodium chloride, sodium hydrogencarbonate, sodium carbonate, sodium phosphate, calcium oxide and magnesium carbonate; inorganic acids such as boric acid and silicic anhydride; organic acids such as benzoic acid, citric acid and succinic acid; medicinal herbs such as fennel (Foeniculi fructus), phellodendron bark (Pheiodendri cortex), Japanese Angelica root (Angelicae radix) and cinnamon bark (Cinnamomi cortex); together with common additives such as a variety of natural essential oils, dyestuffs, perfumes, fats and oils, and alcohols. The mode of action of such bath preparations and the advantages they bring about depend upon the ingredients incorporated. The following are notable examples: they warm the human body and simulate blood circulation, thereby accelerating the flow of blood in peripheral vessels so as to produce enhanced metabolism; they promote perspiration to help the body excrete effete material; salts are deposited on the body surface during bathing and the resulting film covers the skin to keep the body warm for a long time after bathing, serving as a heat insulator. Aside from these effects, bath preparations are said to have some ability to clean and sterilize the skin,.together with curative effects for a variety of dermal and other diseases such as rheumatism and neuralgia, and skin moisturizing effects. Furthermore, bath preparations are even claimed to provide some psychological effects which can have a favourable influence on psychosomatic diseases by virtue of their colors and flavors.
It is also known that some people in Europe have traditionally added cow's milk to baths to exploit its beautifying and health-promoting effects, while other have added whey in expectation of its curative effects with respect to neuralgia and rheumatism.
A prior art technique related to milk-treated baths is a bath preparation in which a dairy ingredient selected from among cow's milk, milk components, powdered milk, unsweetened condensed milk, unsweetened condensed milk components, cream, and cream components is coated with cyclodextrin so as to improve the storage stability of the dairy ingredient (Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application No. 181013/1985).
An improvement directed to providing better warming and beautifying effects than those attained by natural mineral springs has been proposed (Japanese Patent Publication No. 5382/1978). This is a bath preparation for use in an artificial mineral spring that has improved warming and beautifying effects and which contains a water-soluble salt of sodium or potassium (e.g. sodium carbonate or sodium sesquicarbonate), a chelate-forming water-soluble metal salt present in an amount sufficient to form a chelate through exchange with sodium or potassium bound to skin protein (e.g., a water-soluble salt of an alkaline earth metal such as calcium or magnesium), and a nonionic or anionic surfactant.
The bath preparation proposed in Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application No. 181013/1985, which contains a coated compound in which a dairy ingredient (e.g., cow's milk, powdered milk or cream) is coated with cyclodextrin, successfully improved the keeping quality of the inherently labile dairy ingredient. However, when this preparation is used in the bath, the cyclodextrin coat dissolves in the bath water and the dairy ingredient becomes directly exposed to the heat of the water, whereupon it deteriorates through accelerated oxidation, causing such troubles as the occurrence of a rancid smell. If one wants to elicit the potentially diverse effects obtainable from the minerals present in cow's milk, considerable amounts of dairy ingredients must be incorporated, but the occurrence of a rancid smell is then accelerated and the bath water becomes very dirty (e.g. cloudiness and formation of a scum ring around the bath).
The bath preparation proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 5382/1978 is chiefly intended to provide better warming and beautifying effects by incorporating the two principal ingredients, a water-soluble salt such as sodium carbonate or sodium hydrogencarbonate, and a chelateforming water-soluble salt of an alkaline earth metal such as calcium or magnesium. Therefore, not much can be expected from this bath preparation as regards the curative effects for dermal and other diseases such as rheumatism and neuralgia.
Bathing in milk-treated water has long been considered to be beneficial for beautifying and health-promoting purposes but it has the disadvantage of making the bath water cloudy and leaving a sticky effect on the skin after bathing.